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VIU. Post-mining Land Use <br /> A. The land use within the New Horizon Mine 1 area is predominantly wildlife habitat. <br /> The remaining area has been designated as rangeland and dryland pasture. <br /> B. The land use within the New Horizon Mine 2 is related to agriculture, grazing, and <br /> related support facilities. Approximately 85%n of the proposed permit area is in <br /> irrigated agriculture. The remaining 15% is composed of sagebrush rangeland, <br /> abandoned orchards, farmsteads and facilities. With the exception of replanting the <br /> apple orchard, the mine plans to continue the same post mining land use. <br /> The Division is proposing to approve the existing post-mining land use of irrigated <br /> agriculture , grazing and wildlife habitat. (4.16.1) <br /> IX. Protection of Fish, Wildlife and Related Environmental Values <br /> A. Fish and wildlife habitat is a planned post-mining land use. The applicant has selected <br /> appropriate plant species and distributions to benefit fish and wildlife (4.18(5)(1)). <br /> X. Operations on Alluvial Valley Floors <br /> A. The Division has determined that there are no alluvial valley floors along Tuttle or <br /> Calamity Draws by definition. Geomorphically, these draws are located in uplands <br /> several miles northeast of the San Miguel River. The uplands are overlain by less than <br /> ten feet of unconsolidated material,which has been classified as aeolian and sheet wash <br /> material. (The depths of unconsolidated material are documented in Appendix 6-1.) <br /> These draws would only have intermittent flow if it were not for irrigation return flows <br /> and the areas are not naturally subirrigated. <br /> These areas are flood-irrigated by waters acquired from a headgate on the San Miguel <br /> River,located approximately 15 miles upstream. San Miguel River water quality(TDS <br /> of I80 mg/1) is far better than that found in either Tuttle (TDS of 1200 mg/1) or <br /> Calamity Draws (TDS of 1950 mg/1). Water from Tuttle or Calamity Draws could not <br /> be used for agriculture without very controlled management. <br /> The San Miguel River could support several potential alluvial valley floors. However, <br /> since the mine areas are two-and-a-half to three miles upstream, the distance separating <br /> the mine from the river is sufficient to mitigate any impacts. In addition, the amount <br /> of flow contributed by Tuttle Draw and Calamity Draw to the San Miguel River is very <br /> small (0.4 percent of annual mean flow at Uravan). Therefore, the San Miguel River <br /> AVFs are considered to be located outside of the potentially affected area. <br /> 23 <br />